


what's in a name?

by olive_blue_eyes



Series: Andi Mack Things [6]
Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Angst, Boys In Love, Fluff and Angst, Kissing, M/M, cursing, i guess ksjsjsdj
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 05:10:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17481818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olive_blue_eyes/pseuds/olive_blue_eyes
Summary: Cyrus gets a call in the middle of the night from someone he doesn't recognize.





	what's in a name?

“...And who’s this?”

 

“The name’s James.”

 

Cyrus squinted at the clock on his nightstand “Okay…James, can I ask you why you’re calling me at three in the morning?” The boy on the other end of the phone swallowed audibly, and Cyrus made a face.

 

“I…might…have…feelingsforyou.” James spat out, stumbling over his words at every turn. Cyrus shifted around on his bed, frowning at the moonlight that glared right in his eyes throw his bedroom window. He blinked, trying to process this.

 

Some poor kid was crushing hard on a boy, and probably couldn’t sleep with everything going through his head, and it being a school night probably made it worse. So, rather than mulling and feeling anxious, he gets up at three in the morning to call said crush and confess his feelings. Cyrus didn’t judge him, almost everyone he knew made bold decisions while high off their own emotions.

 

He combed through his thoughts for a moment, trying to say something that wouldn’t upset the poor guy. Unfortunately what came out of his mouth was:

 

“I don’t really know you, I’m sorry. Who is this again?”

 

_What the hell was that?!_

 

“Eh, it’s fine,” James yawned, and Cyrus heard him moving around his room on the other end. “I should be getting some sleep anyways. Thanks for picking up, I guess. Man, I _really_ shouldn’t do this while I’m stressed out from homework at… _Christ,_ is it that late already? I have a game tomorrow. Shit.”

 

_He’s trying to change the subject, I fucked up._

 

“Oh, cool! Do you play for the Jefferson basketball team?” Cyrus’ face went blank for a moment, his sleep-deprived brain struggling to piece together sentences like a normal human being. “I mean, assuming you go to my school that is, I don’t know where else you would have seen me.”

 

“No,”

 

_Any longer in this conversation, and I’ll start sweating from anxiety. Awesome._

 

“— I play for the Otters…the Space Otters! You know, the Ultimate team?” James said cheerfully.

 

“Oh. Well, I’ve heard you guys are pretty good! I have a friend on the team.” Cyrus twisted his sheets around his finger, and James laughed rather awkwardly. “Are you feeling okay now? You sounded kind of upset before I asked who was calling me, you seem to be going through a lot.”

 

_You sound like your parents!_

 

“Yeah, I guess. School’s been kinda hard, I— I don’t know, I’ve only ever talked to one person about it.”

 

“Hm. Well, if that’s all you wanna say, that’s cool. I’m not the best with advice anyways.”

 

_Why are you lying to him?_

 

“I might call tomorrow or something, I don’t know. I’m sorry for bothering you.” James’ voice broke, and Cyrus’ heart went along with it.

 

“Don’t apologize!” Cyrus blurted. “You can call me at any time, I promise I’ll pick up.” He smiled softly, but mostly to himself, because James couldn’t see him right now.

 

“Hey Cyrus?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

The boy was very clearly crying now, or at least he was close to. His voice was wobbling up and down as he spoke, as if he was trying hard not to cry, but was about two seconds away from giving up. “Thanks for listening to me. I hope this didn’t ruining anything between us.” The low tone sounded through the phone speaker, and he knew James had hung up without waiting for a response.

 

Cyrus turned over and slammed his face straight into his pillow.

 

_What a mess. Ughhhh. I’m usually so articulate!_

 

He lifted his head up and unlocked his phone again to check his notifications. Usually he had a few from the Good Hair Crew’s group chat, (which Cyrus had set as the permanent name, much to the girls’ dismay,) but he was too tired to read through thirty-seven messages that probably weren’t important.

 

However, when he did open the app, he was reminded that the last person he had _sent_ a text to was TJ Kippen. None of his friends were _quite_ ready to invite him into their silly little group chats, but Cyrus texted him enough to make up for it, for sure.

 

He checked his calls. He hadn’t missed any, that was good.

 

_Call at 3:14 AM: 747-393-8572_

 

**_Would you like to start a conversation with 747-393-8572?_ **

 

_[ yes ]                                       [ no ]_

 

Cyrus selected ‘ **no** ’ almost immediately, opting to create a contact for him instead, in case he followed through on his promise to call again.

 

**New Contact:**

 

 **_[First Name:]_ ** _James_ **_[Last Name:]_ ** _???_

 

plays for the space otters team!

lowkey crushing on me? hh??

how does he know me?

  


_But I don’t even know you._

 

Cyrus shut off his phone and set it back on his nightstand. He fell asleep a moment later, with those words ringing in his ears.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, Underdog!” Cyrus stifled a giggle over TJ’s stupid nickname. As much as he hated (but secretly liked) to admit it, it had stuck between the two of them. This whole _nicknames_ thing.

 

“Hey!” Cyrus called out in response, and waited until TJ reached his side so they could walk to class next to each other. “This might sound weird, but this random kid called me in the middle of the night, or morning I guess, and apparently he goes to our school.”

 

“What did he say?”

 

“I think he just called to say he has feelings for me. I don’t even know him, it was kind of weird. But I’m glad I helped him sort his feelings out at…three a.m. I don’t even know if _I_ have feelings for anyone right now, I’m pretty inexperienced with all this stuff. I hope I said the right things.”

 

TJ shook his head and laughed through his teeth, and then switched the conversation. Cyrus caught it, but didn’t say anything.

 

“Dude, the homework last night was such shit. I lost so much sleep over it, I’m fucking exhausted.” TJ rubbed at his eyes and yawned.

 

“I don’t even know anyone names James. I mean— shit, sorry— tell me about it, it took forever to get done.” Cyrus agreed, gripping the straps on his backpack anxiously.

 

“I don’t even think I finished mine.”

 

Cyrus’ brow furrowed, but he tried his best not to look disappointed in him. “TJ, we talked about this.”

 

“I know, I know. I’ve just had a lot going on lately, what’s one more zero on my report card?” TJ asked, but he knew it was a stupid question.

 

“Like, a _lot_ , actually. We’re almost at the end of the semester, I kinda worry about your grades,” Cyrus laughed, but he wasn’t joking my any means.

 

“What are you, my parents?” TJ asked rhetorically, and got nervous when he saw Cyrus’ expression fall. “Sorry— you know what I meant. I don’t think the teacher can hate me any more than she already does.” When Cyrus still looked worried, he added “Plus, I have a B-minus in the class right now. If the semester’s almost over, all I have to do is make sure it doesn’t drop below a C, I’ll still be passing.”

 

Cyrus sighed, and TJ tried his best to pretend it didn’t hurt.

 

* * *

 

“Kippen,” the teacher began flatly when she reached his desk. “This is the second week in a row you haven’t been turning in your homework. Or actually completing it, I assume. At this point, you’re rather lucky to be doing well on your actual class work assignments, they’re the only thing keeping your grade afloat.”

 

Cyrus raised an eyebrow at this.

 

TJ turned a dark shade of red as he felt the stares of a million kids burn into the back of his skull. “What? But I turned it in all of last week!”

 

The teacher peered down at her clipboard checklist over the rims of her old 70’s-something-looking glasses. “I’m afraid Mr. Goodman here turning in your homework for you while you were ‘out sick’ doesn’t qualify for you _actually_ doing the work, Mr. Kippen.”

 

Both of the boys’ eyes shifted back down to their desks in embarrassment, and the teacher collected Cyrus’ homework, marking an ‘X’ through TJ’s name on the list. She announced that “last night’s homework will be graded by your peers, to take away some of the difficulty of entering all these end-of-the-semester grades”.

 

Cyrus was about to ask Gus to trade homework with him, since Jonah was absent at a therapy appointment for the period; when TJ slapped a pile of papers down of his desk. Cyrus looked through it, and it was all of his homework for the past month, completed, but untouched by the teacher’s pen markings.

 

“What? You did the homework?! TJ, what the fuck!” Cyrus exclaimed, struggling to keep his voice low, even over the ambient chatter of other students’ voices.

 

“What’s the point?” TJ groaned. “I would have gotten everything wrong anyways.”

 

“You don’t know that!” Cyrus reminded him, still a little hysterical. “I thought your tutor was helping you!”

 

“I don’t have one, I only said that so you didn’t have to watch me fuck up every day after school for the whole semester.”

 

“But…I… that’s…TJ! Why did you wait to tell me until just now?”

 

TJ brushed it off rather immaturely, and shrugged. “Don’t know, just been feeling a little risky lately.” Cyrus was immediately terrified of the several implications of that sentence; but TJ had slid the top paper in his stack of homework onto Cyrus’ desk, and stuffed the rest in the recycling bin near the classroom’s doorway.

 

“Okay, uh…what’s your answer for the first question?” Cyrus asked, once TJ sat back down in his squeaky metal chair.

 

“Forty-five point six.” TJ replied, without looking up from his phone, which he hid on the inside of his desk from the teacher’s view.

 

“Really? Because the correct answer isn’t even _close_ to that, and your paper says something else—“

 

“Yeah, Cyrus! No shit! I haven’t had above a C in this class all semester, everything on that paper is so fucking incoherent to me at this point, I’ve given up. And you can’t try and fix me anymore, alright? So just, _please_ , leave me the fuck alone!”

 

All Cyrus did in response as TJ stormed out of the classroom, was blink rapidly to keep tears from inevitably forming in his eyes.

 

_What was that?_

_He’s never been that...sudden_

 

“Would you like to accompany him, Mr. Goodman?” He heard the teacher ask him from the back of the room where she sat. Cyrus nodded.

 

“Yeah I just— give me second.” His gaze fell on the recycling bin, now filled almost solely with TJ’s math homework. Most were crumpled up in some form, except for the ones Cyrus had helped him work on after school. Cyrus held the previous night’s assignment in his hands.

 

Several questions had been erased and redone several times, some were covered in numbers that overlapped, and a couple were scratched out entirely, in ugly dark led that tore into the paper. Cyrus looked back at all the papers in the bin, and they were all in the same general condition.

 

And on the top of every single paper, it read _‘Tyler_ **_James_ ** _Kippen.’_

 

_Oh no._

 

_Oh my god, no._

 

Cyrus stared at the name until tears blurred the words out, and he felt them start to fall.

 

* * *

 

_He doesn’t like you, he doesn’t even know who you are yet. Because you didn’t tell him! You lied! You lied so much. You’re awful, do you know that?_

 

TJ ran his shaking hands through his hair. He’d been crying for a good twenty minutes, still unsure of why he was so stressed and emotional over a stupid crush. It was already eleven, somehow, and he had skipped dinner with his parents to shut himself inside his room like the loser he was. He turned to his bedroom door when he heard a knock, and Amber walked in, looking concerned.

 

“Hey. I heard the door slam shut when you got home earlier, but I wanted to wait until you were feeling a little…” TJ scrubbed his swollen eyes and glared at her through them. “...better.” TJ didn’t look up at her, until she shoved something in front of him. “You can use my phone again, if you plan on calling him tonight.”

 

“How d—”

 

“I know you stole it yesterday.” She sighed, and set it down on the bed next to him. TJ stared at the phone, like it would shock him if he touched it. Amber tried to change the subject. “How’d the game go today? Did you guys get crushed by the Raptors again?”

 

“Shut _up,”_ TJ sniffed, but smiled at her through his drying tears. “And I skipped. I’ve probably got a million texts and calls from the team, I promised I wouldn’t miss this one. Well, after I got suspended for failing class. I don’t think coach would let me play anyways.” He put his head in his hands before continuing. “God, I fucked up today, Amber. I really did. I think Cyrus hates me.

 

“Well, you don’t have to tell me what happened today, then. But there _is_ someone you should be be calling right now. She tapped on the dark phone screen, and TJ stared at it for a good minute before picking it up and dialing Cyrus’ number.

 

He drew in a deep breath, and pressed “ _call_ ”.

 

_Why are you lying to him?_

 

_Why did you have to pretend?_

 

* * *

 

 

_“Oh thank god, he picked up. Uh— hey, Cyrus. It’s uh…it’s TJ. I know you probably don’t want to hear from me right now, but can we talk for a second? Like, in person? I’m uh. I’m outside you house. Amber drove me here. Please answer the door.”_

 

The line went dead, and Cyrus bolted upright from his couch.

 

* * *

 

“You look…upset.”

 

“Nothing gets past you, Cyrus.” Tyler James Kippen himself stood on the Goodmans’ porch in a gray shirt and patterned pajama pants, with a dark teal flannel thrown over it. His sister, Amber, stood behind him, looking just as tired and disheveled. But she was smiling at him, and shoved him closer to Cyrus’ open doorway.

 

“Are...you mad at me, TJ?” Was the first thing he managed to ask.

 

_Unfortunate._

 

TJ shook his head, which was full of far too many things to comprehend right then. “What?”

 

“From class today. Was it something I said?”

 

“God damn it, Cyrus, I like you!” TJ almost shouted, but was quick to stop himself from waking the whole neighborhood with his confession. Amber chuckled from the porch steps, and stopped when TJ shot her a look.

 

“I’ll…go wait…in the car.” She covered her mouth with a hand to hide her growing smile.

 

“Oh, yeah…that.” Cyrus continued after Amber had shut the car door.

 

“Did you know it was me? I thought it was kind of obvious. I’m a pretty awful liar.”

 

“I didn’t until I saw your papers in the trash can,” Cyrus replied. TJ stared at the ground and nodded. “You write your full name on them, you’re such a dork.” He added.

 

Cyrus suddenly surprised all three of them, including himself, when he pulled the taller boy in and kissed him. He noticed TJ’s wide eyes when they broke apart.

 

Amber tried not to smile like an idiot at her brother, who had fallen for this absolute _nerd_. She turned away and acted like it was none of her business so TJ wouldn’t be pissed off.

 

Now it was TJ’s turn to smile and lean in for another. Cyrus happily accepted, and wrapped his hands around the back of the boy’s neck, angling their lips to fit perfectly. When he pulled back to breathe at last, Cyrus ran a hand through TJ’s hair. It was much softer after the gel had been washed out of it.

 

“Hmm. I think I like it better like this,” Cyrus hummed in his ear.

 

“I’ll be sure to wear it like this more often, then,” TJ whispered back, and rested his head on the shorter boy’s shoulder. “I’m tired, Underdog. I think I used up a month’s worth of emotion in these two days alone. I’m burned out. Can I stay at your house?”

 

“My parents are already asleep,” Cyrus reminded him, and gestured to their bedroom upstairs and down the hall, where his mom was snoring loudly. “Maybe tomorrow, though?”

 

“Ughhhhh.” TJ groaned, and turned to look back at Amber, who smiled and waved innocently from the car window at the pair. “I’ve gotten like two hours of sleep in the past two days.”

 

“Go and fix that then, I’ll see you again tomorrow, Kippen.” Cyrus said, and moved TJ towards the porch steps. He kissed him quickly, one more time, and TJ stooped down the stairs as slowly as possible. When he reached Amber, he sat in the backseat on the driver’s side, so he could blow Cyrus a kiss from the window. Amber reached behind her seat to smack him, but TJ was lost in his own his thoughts. He was totally in love with Cyrus Goodman.

 

* * *

 

**Edit Contact:**

 

 **_[First Name:]_ ** _TJ_ **_[Last Name:]_ ** _Kippen_

 

plays for the jefferson high basketball team

my boyfriend??? :)

**Author's Note:**

> \- ok... i pumped this out rly quickly and it is now 2:30 am. I started this at 11 and I'm a slow writer.  
> \- i could have done the ending better 100% but im just. so tired. also i feel like i ruined it lol whoopsie. i like the rest of it tho hehe  
> \- might redo it another time or sumn.  
> \- this popped into my head and i absolute could not sleep until i wrote the whole thing like. talk abt motivation goddamn.  
> \- deadass my 2nd time writing tyrus. im trying so hard ok lmao??  
> \- i love my boys!  
> \- come yell with me on tumblr @tj-and-cyrus!


End file.
